The present invention relates to sharing high quality videos with an audience and friends using an application (referred to as an “app”), or applications designed for mobile devices such as smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc., and also usable on websites and by social networking tools and similar portals.
Recently, mobile phones and smartphones have made it easier for amateur photographers to capture interesting moments or images and share those images with their friends and the world immediately or almost immediately. In the era of virtually unlimited computer memory, an unskilled photographer with a smartphone may take dozens or even hundreds of pictures and then select one that is well framed giving the impression of a “good photographer's eye”. In addition, the photographer may use apps to further improve the artistic quality of the selected photograph by applying image filters that may blur edges of the image or alter colors thereby further increasing the artistic nature of the photograph. Video, however, is a string of many related frames or images and does not lend itself to similar selection of the best images. When sections or parts of the video are shaky, blurry, poorly framed and the like, the only remedy is editing out the bad parts or re-shooting the entire video. Video quality is further complicated by the need for an appropriate and well-timed sound track. The quality of the content and the skill of the videographer, cameraman and editor are so fundamental to the resulting video that available smartphone tools (like filters) and the like simply do not have enough of an effect on the output to transform amateur video footage into high quality videos that would be pleasing to the general viewing public.
Current websites, social media networks, and mobile device applications dedicated to making and or sharing/distribution of videos are lacking because they simply do not address the fundamental problem that amateur videos are just that, amateur. All too often shared amateur videos are not pleasant to watch, or may even be difficult to watch, and therefore are not watched by many people. These facts make it difficult to generate advertising revenue or otherwise monetize the vast majority of amateur videos.
Since a 2010 statistic asserts that the average YouTube video was viewed close to 100,000 times, it is safe to assume that there are many more consumers of on-line videos than those generating them. It is therefore very desirable to determine who produces good videos and find a system that rewards those who do. The systems and methods hereof also assist finding and rewarding authors of good videos.
Further, while the use of smartphones to record video content has increased, the quality of the resulting video on average is down. Thus, a problem exists regarding the quality of video recorded by “amateur” videographers.